Homecheck Flood Report

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﻿"Solicitors play a crucial role in the conveyancing process to help clients understand flood risk and what steps they can take when buying property."﻿Desmond Hudson, The Law Society

It is vital that property professionals, homeowners and buyers all understand their level of flood risk. Insurance may become expensive and, even in some cases, unavailable. A lack of affordable flood insurance can impact on a property’s future valuation, mortgage application and saleability.

It is recommended that whether the purchaser, tenant or the lender should obtain a desktop flood report, for any property they are considering purchasing or taking a lease of. This will alert them to any potential problems, at a stage when it is still possible to renegotiate the price, research whether insurance cover will be available, and discuss flood resistance or resilience measures.

The Homecheck Professional Flood Report is a desktop, conveyancing-ready flood risk screening report designed to enable property professionals to assess the risk of flooding at residential sites. The report has been significantly enhanced to ensure the clearest risk analysis possible, with the addition of new data sets to provide a comprehensive assessment covering all types of flooding.

Key Features and Benefits:The report includes an invaluable Insurance Statement clearly presented at the front of the report so you can advise your clients if the site is likely to be insurable at standard terms. It is estimated that as much as 10 per cent of residential properties are not insurable at standard rates (JBA). Even those properties in areas deemed insurable by the Government are receiving insurance quotes with their premiums increasing fourfold.

NEW! Clear, upfront guidance: Taking on board market feedback, the report includes clear upfront guidance allowing you to communicate critical information simply and easily. You don’t need to be a hydrologist to interpret the results, allowing you to advise your clients with confidence.

NEW! Expert Risk Assessment: The report is backed by the assurance of an independent risk assessment from experienced consultants at Argyll Environmental.

NEW! Flood data from JBA Risk Management: JBA is the largest specialist flood consultancy in the UK and the leading supplier of flood information to the insurance industry and property market. Homecheck contains JBA’s data covering risk from:

River flooding: 1.2 million properties are at risk from river flooding, of which 230,000 are at significant risk. The expected annual damage to properties is £690m.

Coastal Flooding: 1 million properties are at risk from coastal flooding, of which 100,000 are at significant risk3. The expected annual damage to properties is £310m.

Surface Water Flooding: Surface water flooding is increasing as a result, in part, of paving over green spaces, as well from intense rainfall due to climate change. 1.9 million properties are at risk from surface water flooding, 50,000 of these are at a 1 in 30 annual chance or greater. The expected annual damage to properties is £320m. Homeowners can no longer say: ‘I don’t live by the coast or near a river - it won’t happen to me’; flash flooding is the most frequent type of flooding in the UK.

Official Environment Agency (EA) Data: The River & Coastal Risk and Flood Defences data set looks at whether the property is in or within:

250m of an area affected by flooding (Zone 3) or extreme flooding (Zone 2)

250m of flood defences

250m of an area benefiting from flood defences

NEW! EA’s National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA) data: provides a broad-brush assessment of the likelihood of flooding at a national scale, based on assessments undertaken for 85 river catchments and coastal cells. The results are used by the ABI and financial services sector.

NEW! EA Historical Flood Events: Understanding past flooding events is useful as part of your assessment of current flood risk at a specific site. If some of those floods were on sites you manage or similar to yours, you could investigate the impacts those floods had to understand the extent to which the community or organisation was prepared and able to respond to those flood events.

British Geographic Survey (BGS) Groundwater: Your client’s don’t need to be near a river or the sea to be flooded. This data identifies where groundwater flooding could potentially occur based on the underlying geological conditions.

NEW! Next Steps / Recommendations: As well as indicating the level of flood risk, Homecheck provides you with positive options to help mitigate and manage flood risk on a particular property, enabling you to provide value-added advice to your clients. Property level protection measures, such as door guards and air-brick covers, benefit properties in locations of lower population density where flood defences may not be cost-effective.

Please see below for an example of a flood report and also ways which you can order a search.